Explore the city with kids
UX/UI Case study
A a responsive web app for location-based, family-friendly recommendations
There are a lot of location-based recommendation apps, but most of them offer a limited variety of family-friendly features. You can easily find the main attractions, parks, museums, cinemas and theatres, however, there are many more hidden gems to explore with kids in London.
Foxcurious is a responsive web app for location-based, family-friendly recommendations, helping parents and guardians to find family activities in the city, tailored to their needs and interest. From the famous museums and what secrets they hide for little and not so little explorers to little local playgroups and fun playgrounds.
Quality time for kids and adults together.
Competitive Analysis
Competitor analysis were conducted between Foursquare city guide, TripAdvisor, and Google Maps.
Google Maps
Key Objectives
"Explore and navigate your world” is the Google maps tagline. And that’s what they offer. The user can discover new experiences across the world or around the corner. You can find places to eat, attractions, hotels, things to do…Route planning is made easy with real-time traffic updates, hands-free assistance, and updates for public transport. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, and 360° interactive panoramic views of streets.
Over 220 countries and territories mapped
Millions of destinations
As of 2020 Google Maps was being used by over 1 billion people every month around the world.
Overall strategy
Google Maps offers an API that allows maps to be embedded on third-party websites and offers a locator for businesses and other organisations in numerous countries around the world.
The app has 3.9 stars (out of 5)14,502,387 on Google Play and 4.7 ( out of 5) 558.6K Ratings on the App store.
Great rating on the app store
Many third-party websites and businesses redirect you to Google maps for navigation.
Market Advantage
It’s easy to find Google maps on google navigation search.
In 2020, Google Maps was the most downloaded map and navigation app in the United States, despite being a standard pre-installed app on Android smartphones. Waze followed, with 11.22 million downloads in the examined period.
According to Google, local searches on Google and Google Maps drive consumers to 1.5 billion destinations each year.
Amounts of data
Marketing Profile
Google Maps launched in the US on 8 February 2005 and in the UK two months later, though by that time it wasn’t the first digital map of its kind: Yahoo had beaten Google to it with a redevelopment of its long-standing Yahoo Maps in 2004.
“Yahoo beat Google to web maps and MapQuest beat it to turn-by-turn directions, but people didn’t stand up and take notice until Google Maps came along,” said Gary Gale, the Ordnance Survey’s head of APIs. “It wasn’t the first out there, but the role of Google Maps in transforming digital maps, making them popular and bringing them from a tech niche into the public consciousness cannot be underplayed.”
Since then Google Maps has changed the mapping world with satellite imagery, turn-by-turn navigation, business locations, Street View, offline maps, wheelchair-accessible routes, Live view, real-time traffic information, route planner and has partnered globally with public transportation providers.
They’ve stuck to their original mission and keep innovating it
Google Maps is by far the most used navigation app.
People prefer Google maps because of its clear directions, thanks to its enormous amounts of data.
it’s user-friendly
It’s fast, one of the fastest (if not the fastest) map loading times in the world
SWOT Analysis
Strengths:
• Wealth of Information
• Familiarity
• Sharing
Weaknesses:
• Limited Accuracy
Key Objectives
"Explore and navigate your world” is the Google maps tagline. And that’s what they offer. The user can discover new experiences across the world or around the corner. You can find places to eat, attractions, hotels, things to do…Route planning is made easy with real-time traffic updates, hands-free assistance, and updates for public transport. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, and 360° interactive panoramic views of streets.
Over 220 countries and territories mapped
Millions of destinations
As of 2020 Google Maps was being used by over 1 billion people every month around the world.
Overall strategy
Google Maps offers an API that allows maps to be embedded on third-party websites and offers a locator for businesses and other organisations in numerous countries around the world.
The app has 3.9 stars (out of 5)14,502,387 on Google Play and 4.7 ( out of 5) 558.6K Ratings on the App store.
Great rating on the app store
Many third-party websites and businesses redirect you to Google maps for navigation.
Market Advantage
It’s easy to find Google maps on google navigation search.
In 2020, Google Maps was the most downloaded map and navigation app in the United States, despite being a standard pre-installed app on Android smartphones. Waze followed, with 11.22 million downloads in the examined period.
According to Google, local searches on Google and Google Maps drive consumers to 1.5 billion destinations each year.
Amounts of data
Marketing Profile
Google Maps launched in the US on 8 February 2005 and in the UK two months later, though by that time it wasn’t the first digital map of its kind: Yahoo had beaten Google to it with a redevelopment of its long-standing Yahoo Maps in 2004.
“Yahoo beat Google to web maps and MapQuest beat it to turn-by-turn directions, but people didn’t stand up and take notice until Google Maps came along,” said Gary Gale, the Ordnance Survey’s head of APIs. “It wasn’t the first out there, but the role of Google Maps in transforming digital maps, making them popular and bringing them from a tech niche into the public consciousness cannot be underplayed.”
Since then Google Maps has changed the mapping world with satellite imagery, turn-by-turn navigation, business locations, Street View, offline maps, wheelchair-accessible routes, Live view, real-time traffic information, route planner and has partnered globally with public transportation providers.
They’ve stuck to their original mission and keep innovating it
Google Maps is by far the most used navigation app.
People prefer Google maps because of its clear directions, thanks to its enormous amounts of data.
it’s user-friendly
It’s fast, one of the fastest (if not the fastest) map loading times in the world
SWOT Analysis
Strengths:
• Wealth of Information
• Familiarity
• Sharing
Weaknesses:
• Limited Accuracy
Opportunities:
• Directions include estimated fuel costs.
• Integration with your mobile music apps.
• Download free travel guides for your destinations.
Threats:
Other navigation apps like Waze, Apple Maps and MapQuest
UX Analysis
Usability: Easy to use and user-friendly.
Layout: Familiar, intuitive layout. Very clear and understandable.
Navigation Structure:
The navigation bar is always at the bottom of the screen with easily recognisable icons and labels allowing easy navigation. Search input field at the top with different options for optimising the search. The map with your location is in the background so you can just explore what is around you.
Compatibility: The app operates on all platforms and devices.
Gathering requirements
Who is the user?
Parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, childminders and nannies… anyone who is looking for family-friendly fun in London.
What major goals and tasks will users want/need to accomplish?
They will find new family-friendly places and activities around the city (and some trips outside the city), tailored to the family budget, the children’s age and interests.
What will the product do?
The product will recommend family-friendly places or activities based on location and individual preferences.
Where will the product be used?
At home on the computer, or out on a smartphone or tablet. The users will have the freedom to make plans in advance or explore on the go.
Why does the user need the product?
There are a lot of activities and places in London, parks and playgrounds, museums and theatres, local baby and toddler groups or youth clubs…Sometimes parents are too busy and too tired to do online research. And sometimes you don’t even know what to look for… I’m hoping my design would take some of this pressure off and help parents and children bond over quality time together.
What kind of information will be created, entered, or featured in the product?
Family-friendly places of interest based on location, or specific search. Opening times, directions, maps, links to websites, Information about price and booking requirements.
What particular business goals are you trying to achieve with this product launch?
Helping people looking after children to find location-based family-friendly activities, attractions, events, classes…This could be beneficial for big and small businesses, offering such activities.
Which platform and devices will the product live on?
It will be a responsive web app supporting any device with a web browser.
User Interviews
User Interview were conducted with parents who live in London and would find the app useful for discovering new ways to enjoy the city with their kids.
Were there any patterns that emerged from the answers?
• Clear, easy to use design is very important
• Weekend and holiday activities
• Outdoor activities
• Distance is an issue
• Accurate information
Was there anything that surprised you/was an outlier in the answers?
People don’t search often online for family friendly suggestions
Noteworthy quote(s)
“It could inspire us to try new things as a family, things we haven’t event thought about”
Were there any frustrations mentioned?
• Unclear design
• Too many adds
• Missinformation
User Interview were conducted with parents who live in London and would find the app useful for discovering new ways to enjoy the city with their kids.
Were there any patterns that emerged from the answers?
• Clear, easy to use design is very important
• Weekend and holiday activities
• Outdoor activities
• Distance is an issue
• Accurate information
Was there anything that surprised you/was an outlier in the answers?
People don’t search often online for family friendly suggestions
Noteworthy quote(s)
“It could inspire us to try new things as a family, things we haven’t event thought about”
Were there any frustrations mentioned?
• Unclear design
• Too many adds
• Missinformation
Were there any needs or goals the participants mentioned?
• Need of informal for local family events
• New ideas for family activities
• Inspiration to try new things
• To be taken in consideration age of child, interests, distance, budget
MVP
Objective
To design a responsive web app for location-based, family-friendly recommendations, helping parents and guardians to find family activities in the city.
Hypothesis
I believe that parents and guardians need an app that allows them to find family activities in the city in a familiar, simple, easy and stress-free way.
Success Metrics
• Number of downloads
• Number of signups
• Most-used search criteria
• Number of monthly searches
• Ratings of the product
Objective
To design a responsive web app for location-based, family-friendly recommendations, helping parents and guardians to find family activities in the city.
Hypothesis
I believe that parents and guardians need an app that allows them to find family activities in the city in a familiar, simple, easy and stress-free way.
Success Metrics
• Number of downloads
• Number of signups
• Most-used search criteria
• Number of monthly searches
• Ratings of the product
Reflection
• How did you interpret the project brief?
The project aims to design a responsive web app for location-based family-friendly recommendations that meets the requirements of its users and solves the problems they face with existing location-based recommendation apps.
• How have you met the project objective?
By designing a responsive web app for location-based, family-friendly recommendations, helping parents and guardians to find family activities in the city in a familiar, simple, easy and stress-free way.
• What was your role in this project?
UX and UI designer.
• How did you decide on your MVP features and functionality?
Creating user personas and conducting user interviews helped me establish the JTBD and the most necessary MVP features for the product.
• What roadblocks did you encounter as you worked on each deliverable? How did you overcome these roadblocks?
My biggest roadblocks were getting too excited and adding too many details, colours, and distractions. I overcome these roadblocks by reminding myself that quite often, “Less is more” and asking myself “, Do I need this?” “How is this helping the users?” Taking feedback seriously and working to improve my design.
• What insights from your research and testing had the most significant impact on your final design?
I learned that users prefer familiar, straightforward designs. I knew that, but I don’t think I realised the depth of it till I stumbled across it in my research and during user testing.
• Did you have to change direction at all? If so, why?
I spent much time (I won’t say wasted because I learned a lot during the process) trying to add flat illustrations and lots of colours, shapes and patterns to the design. This made my screens cluttered, so I learned to keep it simple and focus on the user's needs.
• If you could, what would you do differently?
I would make the L breakpoint for my responsive screens bigger.
